By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
North Korea's recent provocative acts, including preparations to launch a rocket, are part of the regime's tactics to get the upper hand in troubled six-party denuclearization talks, the top U.S. military officer in South Korea said Tuesday.
In a House Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, Gen. Walter L. Sharp, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, expressed concern about North Korea's increased number of special forces deployed near the inter-Korean border, as well as conventional military power, artilleries and ballistic missiles.
Sharp, who concurrently serves as chief of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command and the United Nations Command, called Pyongyang a key country that proliferates conventional weapons systems around the world.
``North Korea's most recent provocative actions are all an attempt to ensure the regime's survival and improve its bargaining position at international negotiations to gain concessions,'' Sharp, who commands both 650,000 South Korean troops and 28,500 U.S. forces on the Korean Peninsula in case of war, said.
The six-party talks involving the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia have been in a stalemate for months as North Korea refuses a proposal to establish a protocol to verify its nuclear activities and materials.
The Stalinist regime has been resorting to a campaign of threats against the South, which experts say is aimed at drawing attention from U.S. President Barack Obama's administration and gaining more concessions at the denuclearization talks.
Earlier this month, North Korea declared its intent to launch a communications satellite into orbit between April 4 and 8 as part of its ``peaceful space development'' programs. The United States, South Korea and other allies, however, see it as a cover for a test-firing of the Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile, which can reach U.S. soil.
South Korea and Japan have warned North Korea of United Nations sanctions following the planned rocket launch, which violates a 2006 U.N. resolution banning the North from engaging in any missile-related activities. The North threatens to boycott the six-way talks if international sanctions are imposed.
Sharp anticipated North Korea would resort to further provocative actions to help secure its regime's survival.
``Regime survival remains the North Koreans' overriding focus,'' he said.
The commander added North Korea appears to be stable despite leader Kim Jong-il's alleged health problems.
Kim will resort to many different types of provocation to try to ensure survival of North Korea as he has said he will go against an April U.N. Security Council resolution and launch the Taepodong-2, the general said.